82 DATS OUT OF DOORS. 



That trees must be felled goes without saying ; but it 

 is deplorable that the importance of reforesting our less 

 fertile tracts did not occur to our grandfathers. Could I 

 boast to-day of a few acres of Crosswicks oaks, there is no 

 wealth that could purchase their destruction. It is true 

 that extensive forests and modern civilization are incom- 

 patible ; but not so civilization and ample groves. As all 

 Crosswicks points with pride to its single oak, so, too, the 

 people of May's Landing may well be proud of their beau- 

 tiful village so generously shaded by its splendid trees. 



As the oaks had done, so, too, the many sour gums 

 or pepperidge trees in the village quickly attracted my 

 attention. In a general way they were familiar enough, 

 but at the same time bore their stamp of an environment 

 widely different from that at home, in holding aloft, 

 among their leafless boughs, great clusters of pale green, 

 clammy mistletoe. 



The seeds of this parasitic plant, carried, it is thought, 

 by birds, had found lodgment on the outer bi'anches of 

 these trees, and at once demanded tribute — a drain, as it 

 proves, upon the poor tree's treasury. Slowly, but surely, 

 the limbs become knobbed, gnarly, and knotted; then 

 wither and decay. 



That the relentless stranger moves steadily toward the 

 base of the tree, as its afflicting presence works the de- 

 struction of its host, was evident from the appearance of 

 many branches, yet it does not appear that a tree is ulti- 

 mately killed by the plant. There were nineteen of these 

 gum trees — all, save one, close to the water's edge — and oue 

 hundred and twenty-five bunches of mistletoe were grow- 

 ing thereon ; some of them large enough to fill a bushel- 

 measure. 



This was something I had never seen before, and so 

 far of passing interest, but it roused no feeling of admi- 

 ration — seemed, indeed, a miserable blunder — and I was 



